The initial work of Student Government’s Student Union
Steering Committee was presented to USC’s board of trustees
on Friday, garnering the support of University President
Harris Pastides and trustees alike.
Student Body President Ross Lordo presented the board
with a timeline that would kick-start updated plans for
renovating the Carolina Coliseum into a new student union.
Under Lordo’s plan, a recent $10 student fee increase would
continue to fund a concept study on the renovations. SG’s
Steering Committee would present those conclusions to the
board by the end of the calendar year and schematic designs
would be but together by 2020 or 2021.
SEEUNIONPAGE3

Rick Ackerman / THE DAILY GAMECOCK

Senior A’ja Wilson led all scorers, contributing 22 points to the Gamecocks 64-57 win over Florida.

In a game with a neck-to-neck
second half, the No.7 South
Carolina women’s basketball
team held off the Florida Gators
long enough to get the 64-57
w in in f ront of a booming
crowd at Colonial Life Arena on
Sunday afternoon.
With the U.S. National Team
in attendance as well as some

Team here so they can see. And
I talked to them a little bit about
that after this game ... Our
players get so dejected when
they miss a shot, or when they
turn the ball over. If you ever see
that happen with [Team USA],
they turn the page quickly cause
they know the game is so fast,
you can get it back.”
Following two big losses to

notable stars in the W NBA,
such as Brittney Griner of the
Phoenix Mercury, head coach
Dawn Staley was able to instill
tact ics t hat she saw in t he
national team’s abilities into her
players to help them continually
succeed.
“We were a little tired against
Alabama, but I thought we were
pretty good today,“ Staley said.
“We got rejuvenated. I think it
helped to have the US National

SEESPORTSPAGEB1

The Carolina Coliseum building was built in 1968.

The blotter comes from police reports released by the USC Division of Law Enforcement and Safety and doesn’t include crimes
reported by city or county law enforcement.

INSIDE
Ethan Lam / THE DAILY GAMECOCK

Crime on Campus - Feb. 4-Feb. 9

Larceny/
Theft

Drug/
Narcotic
Possession

DUI

Fraud/
Fake ID

2

14

8

1

Alcohol/
Weapons
Drunkenness Violation
1
3

Barnwell

Vandalism/
Trespassing
1

Woodrow College
Preston

Capstone
House

Greene Street

Women’s
Quad
Not Shown/Oﬀ Map

Russell
House
Bull

Sumwalt

Sumter Street

Library

Bull St.
Parking

McBryde

Patterson

Strom Wellness
and Fitness Center

South
Tower

Darla Moore School
of Business

Blossom
Street
Blossom
Street

South
Quad

East
Quad

Wheat Street

Green
Quad
Bates
West

Bates
House

650 Lincoln
Discover y Parking
Garage

x2

Pickens

point is having himself a bad day. But it
gets worse.
Once the ofﬁcer read the suspect his
Miranda rights, the suspect said that
there was a gun and marijuana in a “pink
bag” in the car. Upon searching the
vehicle the ofﬁcer found an open, purple
Disney princess backpack in the back
seat. According to the report the bag
contained a loaded 9mm semi-automatic
handgun, 20 rounds of ammunition and
80.7 grams of marijuana.
Where this suspect for a drugs and
narcotics possession charge obtained
a Disney princess backpack, USCPD
may not care to know. But which Disney
princess was on that bag — Soﬁa — the
ofﬁcer on the scene somehow knew and
included in his report.
The handgun was legally obtained.
The suspect said he purchased it at a gun
show and used it “to protect his family.”
USCPD did not identify the person the
suspect attempted to call in their report,
but if there was ever a time to phone
home, this was not it.
With no further incident, though, the
suspect was arrested and the keys to his
vehicle were left with his mother.

Jones

Feb. 8, 9:17 a.m.
Over 80 grams of marijuana were
recovered along with a loaded semiautomatic handgun ... from a purple
Disney princess backpack.
An ofﬁcer smelled what he suspected
could be burning marijuana coming
from a vehicle on the 1100 block of
Lincoln Street on Thursday morning.
The ofﬁcer also reported hearing music
coming from the vehicle. Maybe it was
Disney music, but USCPD did not
specify.
The off icer saw one of t he car’s
windows rolled half-way down and the
driver’s seat occupied. He asked the
person in the driver’s seat about the
smell, and the person said he had smoked
marijuana. After the suspect consented
to a search of his vehicle, he tried to
make a phone call. When the officer
instructed him to hang up the phone, the
suspect ﬂed on foot.
“After passing a few parked vehicles,
[the suspect] attempted to cut in between
a vehicle on his left, misjudged the height
of the curb, struck his shin on the raised
curb and fell forward onto the ground,”
USCPD reports. The suspect at this

the summer
The
Daily Gamecock
with theis the
exception
editorially
of university
independentholidays
student and
newspaper
exam
The Daily Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper
of
the University
of South inCarolina.
It Gamecock
is published
two
periods.
Opinions expressed
The Daily
areintheprint
author’s
of
theDaily
University
of South
Carolina. It
is publishedstudent
daily during
the
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is the editorially
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times
in the fall and
and
weekly during
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notweek
the university’s.
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of Student
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and
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nine times
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Carolina.
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EDITOR
ARTS & CULTURE

“You might say that this African nation is fantasy. But to have the opportunity
to pull from real ideas, real places and real African concepts, and put it inside of
this idea of Wakanda – that’s a great opportunity to develop a sense of what that
identity is, especially when you’re disconnected from it.”
— Chadwick Boseman, star of Black Panther and a South Carolina native, in his
interview for the cover of Time magazine

Rally planned to protest
coastal oil drilling
Busloads of coastal South Carolinians belonging to environmental groups are
showing up on the State House steps Tuesday to protest President Donald
Trump’s proposal to allow drilling for oil off the East Coast, reports The State.
The Federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to hold a public forum
Tuesday night on the drilling proposal at the Columbia DoubleTree Hilton. It’s
the only federal forum planned in South Carolina on the issue.
— Compiled by Larissa Johnson, news editor

University response to crises
Hannah Dear
@THEGAMECOCK

Racially-charged posters on Martin
Luther K ing Jr. Day. A suicide in
a campus building. Discriminatory
social media posts. When situations
happen on c a mpu s t hat requ i re
a re sp on se f rom t he u n iver sit y
administration, students’ reactions
range from appreciative to highly
critical.
To explore universit y policy on
campus crises, The Daily Gamecock
sat down with USC’s Chief Officer
of Communication Wes Hickman.
He discussed the management of
recent crises and the specific role
of the administration in contrast to
that of other university ofﬁcials. The
following interview has been edited
for clarity and brevity.
Q: What does the university do
when a situation, like this (i.e the
racially charged posters and suicide
in Gambrell) arises?
A: There’s a lot of different kinds of

crises. All the senior administrators
go through crisis training. Our USC
police department ... is the number
one convening group around crisis
management. They implement a
system called the Incident Command
System. It’s a federally recognized
s y stem c h a i n of com m a nd t h at
dictates how you’re going to operate
in an emergency situation.
That system works in two phases.
There’s what’s called the executive
policy group and that’s all the senior
administrators at the university. Then
there’s an emergency management
team, and those are the associate vice
presidents, directors and people like
that who work at that level. So we all
train and do workshops in that type of
thing all the time so that we’re always
up on the latest in incident command
systems, crisis management, crisis
communication and all that sort of
stuff. You take the lessons you learn
from that and apply them in individual
situations because every situation is
different.

As an institution we have to make
sure we have the facts right. One of the
things that I tell people is when you’re
going into an incident response, as a
professional your responsibility is to
take a breath, understand the situation
and start to understand the facts at
hand. You see police departments do
this a lot when they’re conducting
an investigation. The other thing is
that a situation like with the ﬂyers is
a great opportunity for an institution
to fall back to your values ... We
know that our values are based on the
principles espoused in the Carolinian
Creed — civilit y and respect for
all. The flyer situation clearly runs
against the values of our institution.
What you want to do is make sure
you’re communicating those values
t h roughout t hat i nst it ut ion a nd
throughout that incident. The best
t ime to bu ild t r ust a mong you r
aud ience s a nd you r com mu n it y
members is not during a crisis. It’s
every other day of the year. If we are
doing our best to live the Carolinian

Creed as an institution, as individuals
... that’s the best way to combat those
types of things.
Q: What separates the roles of
the administration and student life
coordinators in times of crisis?
A: Our job is really to look at
the strategy and the response to a
s c e n a r io . T h e p e o p le w h o a r e
responsible for carrying that out are
really there to make sure that those
things get done in a very professional
way. For example, the vice president of
student affairs is probably not going
to be, well certainly not going to be,
on the front lines as a counselor, but
we’re going to rely on our trained
professional staff to do that. We have
taken great care then to hire the
professional staff that we need in each
area ... to make sure we can respond
to things like that. If you take the
death by suicide in Gambrell and
the death by suicide of the student
who lived in Capstone, those are two
SEECRISESPAGE3

Attention Students:
Looking for a Summer Job? Applications Now Available for:

Residential & Day Counselors
Do you see yourself working with middle and high school students? Or planning a
career that involves mentoring youth? Come share your love of USC with others!
Pre-University Programs in the Office of Continuing Education and Conferences at
USC is now accepting applications for Residential and Day Summer Counselors.
These positions will serve as university ambassadors and mentors to middle and high
school students participating in academic summer programs, including the Carolina
Master Scholars Adventure Series, Summer Program Research Interns from the Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics, SAT/ACT Summer Institutes, and others.
Great resume builder and an opportunity to gain experience working with youth!

Positions start May 29 and through July 21
Application deadline: Friday, February 16!

University President Harris Pastides spoke with students at a Feb. 6 public forum on diversity.

UNIONPAGE1
The board and Pastides
approved that timeline.
“I wa nt to leave no
doubt, Ross, to you
that we are supportive,”
Pastides said. “I
personally am supportive
of this.”
In addition to Lordo’s
presentat ion, Past ides
noted that the Coliseum
is “too big” to just be a
student union and said the
building would continue
t o c o nt a i n a c a d e m ic
space. W hen asked if
recent renovations to the
basketball practice areas
of the Coliseum would be
undone, Pastides said that
would not be a concern
for many years.

In his presentation,
Lordo arg ued t hat
the Russell House lags
beh i nd t he st udent
u n ions of ot her,
comparable schools. He
made a persona l plea
to the board, citing his
experience as a university
ambassador.
“As a tour guide, I’m
constantly bringing our
pro s p e c t i ve s t udent s
t h rough t he Russell
H o u s e . . . We d o n’t
necessarily just sell the
building, you sell t he
ex per ience,” he sa id.
“But we have so many
students that are going
through Russell House
and then they’re going
to the North or going to
Georgia or Florida and

examples especially of where
we have to mobilize a pretty
ex tensive cou nseling ef fort
and inform students of what’s
going on. In those situations
in particular ... those are very
delicate situations ... the coroner
generally doesn’t release the
cause of death, and there are
a lot of reasons behind that
psychologically, sociologically
... you don’t want to create
what’s called a contagion factor
among students. So there’s a
responsibility of the university
t o t a l k ab out it i n a v e r y
professional and respectful kind
of way, there’s a responsibility
of the media to talk about it in a
very professional and respectful
way, and at the same time we
have to meet the needs of our
students.
Q: There was some
backlash against the
administrat ion (follow ing
the first #NotOnOurCampus
event). Can you speak to that?
A: Part of the challenge with

3

the event the day after was that
it was planned for a day the
president was not in town. There
again you have to balance the
need for convening everybody
to have a conversat ion wit h
the availability of people who
can be t here. W hat I t hink
is of ten m is sed is t he f ac t
that the universit y, with the
president’s blessing, put out
a statement immediately in
response. The president and
our board chairman put out a
joint statement the very next
day when we had a little bit
more information and some
more facts ... the idea that it’s
being swept under the rug is not
true. It’s actually being dealt
with. There was a significant
i nve s t ig at io n b y US C PD
... somet i me s when you’re
conducting an investigation
it hampers the investigation
to put informat ion into t he
publ ic a ren a . You h ave t o
balance between keeping your
public informed and doing the
t hings t hat are best for t he
investigation.

going into their unions
and it’s magniﬁcent.”
USC has not added
square footage to Russell
H o u s e s i n c e 19 76 ,
accord i ng to L ordo’s
presentation. The next
lo n g e s t r u n w it h o u t
expansion in t he SEC
is at the Universit y of
Arkansas, which hasn’t
added space to its student
union since 2000.
Tr ustees also heard
an update on the
University’s Master Plan,
put together in 2010, at
the February meeting.
Among other ideas, the
c onc ept of e x p a nde d
student union space was
also addressed in t hat
presentation.

@thegamecock

Carolina Alert is the
Emergency Preparedness
resource on campus
for students.
• Sign up to receive emergency notiﬁcations
• Learn how to stay safe on campus
• Review emergency procedures

Students, sign up to receive text messages
and emails at carolinaalert.sc.edu.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
(#CarolinaAlert).
www.sc.edu/carolinaalert

who has been attending the
festival for years, said the
wide variety of music is one
of his favorite parts of the
day. With Cajun grass groups
and rock and roll bands, the
fou r st age s of mu sic had
something for every taste. A
major highlight was a local
brass group.
“The Soda City Brass Band
brings a whole new element
and jazz to the festivities,”
said Hunt. “The bands are so
much fun.”

“That’s the thing … it rained
and nobody left.”
A not her f i r st-t i me
attendee, Traci Teagle, was
i mpre s s ed b y e ver yone’s
enthusiasm. Her one regret
of the day was not wearing
more purple and green.
“Ever yone really outdid
what I thought they would
do,” said Teagle. “People
were handing me beads as
soon as I got here … morale
is high.”
A lt hough t he fe st iva l

Illustration by Maggie Neal

concluded on Sat urday at
dusk, the communit y will
cont i nue to ex per ience
the positive impact of the
festival. This year’s festival
benefited “Heroes in Blue,”
a nonprof it org a n iz at ion
t hat promotes posit ive
relationships between local
pol ice a nd com mu n it y
members a nd prov ides
support for families of fallen
officers.
M a r d i G r a s C olu m b i a
was hosted by The K rewe
d e C olu m b i Ya Ya , w ho
organized the festival. The
K re we a l so hold s e vent s
throughout the year to keep
the Mardi Gras spirit alive.
Mardi Gras Columbia will
return again next year with
d if ferent music a nd food
vendors, but the same New
Orleans enthusiasm.

Tori Richman / THE DAILY GAMECOCK

Despite the poor weather, Columbia residents gather to make local Mardi Gras festivities a success, and raise money for a local nonprofit throughout the celebration.

All things Valentine’s
Day see page 5
We asked our Instagram followers how they felt
about Valentine’s Day:
NOT A FAN
57%

LOVE IT
43%

Monday, February 12, 2018

5

What I talk about when I talking about...

DATING
Emily Barber

@EMRBARBER

Swiping left or right is the modern
equivalent of a folded-up sheet of
notebook paper with the message,
“Do you l ike me? Check yes or
no.” You know a little bit about a
person and what they look like, and
somehow in t hat moment you’re
supposed to decide if the person is
worthy of your attention and time.
But t his isn’t an indict ment of
internet dating, in all its many forms.
Novelist John Green met his first
serious girlfriend over the internet
in the 1990s, right at the start of the
online-dating phenomenon. Hunter
Hill, a comedian from Los Angeles,
met his fiancée on Tinder. My father
a nd stepmot her met online. My
older brother met his girlfriend, who
lives in Indonesia, on OkCupid, and
they’ve been together for nearly two
years.
Internet dating, like many nonromantic online communities, is
a wonderf ul thing that allows us
to con nect w it h people t hat we
wouldn’t have met otherwise. When
I studied abroad, I went on a Tinder
date with a guy from New Zealand

who did theater sound tech and had
hung out with the cast of “Wicked.”
It was a lovely afternoon.
My issue is not with people meeting
via digital means, but instead with
the effect I think it’s having on our
attitude towards
dating as a
whole. Ca s u a l
dating is a thing
of the past, or at
least it’s rapidly
becom ing t hat
way. “Dat i ng ”
no longer means
spend i ng t ime
w it h s ome one
i n a w a y t h at
gives you space
to decide if you
want t hings to
be more serious.
“ D a t i n g ”
c o n n o t e s
commit ment
and exclusivity.
We no longer have a concept for
getting to know someone in a casual,
yet romantic light.
Social media and technology are
largely responsible for t he shift,
because it’s so easy for ever yone

you’re connected with to know what
you’re doing. It’s really easy for you
— or your friends — to know what
the person you went on a date with
last week is doing. With cameras
ever y where, a nd cou nt less eyes
watch i ng all
those cameras,
keeping you r
dating life
personal is
dif f icult.
Sha r i ng you r
fun experiences
— dates, nights
out, nights in —
is tempting, and
I d o n’t t h i n k
it ’s w r o n g t o
share your life
if you want to.
But say you’re
casually seeing
two people, and
one of t hem
sees a Snapchat
or I nst ag ram stor y of t he g reat
sushi you got with the other one,
and suddenly you’re in an awkward
situation.
I’m basing this next claim on many
episodes of “Friends” and “Gilmore

“It’s really easy for
you — or your friends
— to know what the
person you went on a
date with last week is
doing.”

Girls,” but in the past, it wouldn’t
have been unusual or unacceptable
to be going out with multiple people
until you had decided with another
person, in a considered and mature
conversation, that you were exclusive.
These days, that talk comes up much
more quickly than it used to, not
only because of the publicity of our
lives, but also because of constant
connectivity. It’s dangerously easy
for us to be in touch with each other
at any given moment, which leads
to over-analysis and hurt feelings
if someone isn’t communicating as
much as you think they should.
Here’s the deal: It’s okay if you
don’t know in the first 15 seconds
or 15 days or even 15 weeks whether
or not someone is right for you. It’s
possible to spend time with more
than one person in a romantic way
and have leg it imate feelings for
both or all of them. Dating should
be fun and shareable, which means
t hat any amount of commitment
or responsibility to another person
should come from a conversation.
O u r bigge st re sponsibi l it y i n
relationships, casual or serious, is to
be honest and kind. You can’t rush
those things.

Do’s and Don’ts
Valentine’s Day

THIS WEEK IN
ARTS & CULTURE
Caroline Stringfellow
@SILLY_STRING

For all the students at USC who are looking to spice up their Wednesday, here is a list of 2018 Valentine’s Day
do’s and don’ts.

Do’s
Check out “Fifty Shades Freed.”
Whether you plan to spend the holiday with friends
or a date, this fi lm is the epitome of Valentine’s Day
romance and has just hit theaters. “Fifty Shades Freed”
is a drama-filled film that has already been scrutinized
by many critics.

Break a sweat.
Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center is
having a special “Bring the Boys to the Barre” class
this Wednesday from 5:15 to 6:15 p.m. This barre class
is unique because anyone with a Group X pass can
bring whomever they choose, even if that person does
not have a pass.

“LOVE IS LOVE IS LOVE”
showing Feb. 16 - Feb. 18

Russell House
Theater

Get bent out of shape over planning the
perfect date.

Let loose at yoga.
Another activity to get your heart beating faster is an
Acro Yoga class, also at Strom Thurmond Wellness
and Fitness Center. From 6:45 to 7:45 p.m. on Feb. 14,
the class has been modified to include many different
partner exercises.

Neglect man’s best friend.

Let your dog off leash.
Puppy lovers, feel free to bring your dogs out to Davis
Fields for Carolina Production’s Dogs on Davis from
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Your pup deserves to
be celebrated as much as any other loved one on this
day.

Be afraid of a little competition.

Round up a group of friends and bring them to Tio’s
Mexican Cafe for Wednesday night trivia at 10 p.m.
This Mexican café is a solid choice for any occasion,
and the lucky winner gets prizes and drink specials.

Forget where you came from.

Throw it back with your favorite childhood singer.
M a ny 90 s k ids remember c r u sh i ng on Ju st i n
Timberlake. He dropped his latest album, “Man of
the Woods” on Feb. 2. If you haven’t had the chance to
listen to it, grab some friends and get *NSYNC with
each other.

St re s s b e c au se you’re to o bu s y on
Wednesday.

Celebrate a little early.
Because one night of celebrating your special someone
isn’t enough, The Food Academy is having a couple’s
cooking class Tuesday, Feb. 13 from 6 to 9 p.m. A
three-course meal will be prepared by the two of you
with a bonus glass of champagne to keep the buzz
going.

We need
another
space race
Elon Musk did the incredible
and tossed a car up into space.
Some people view it as silly, but
I love the stunt. The talk going
on right now about space and
the future of space exploration
has deﬁnitely been reinvigorated
by this move, and I could not be
Rodney
happier. Following the trip of
Davis
First-year history
Falcon Heavy, the rocket that
student
carried the car up to space, Musk
came out and said, “We want a
new space race. Space races are exciting.”
I absolutely agree with him: A new space
race would be amazing for the American
people.
Space races astound the scientiﬁc world with
innovation and technological advancement.
The last space race took the United States
from being bound to Earth to landing on the
moon, to sending the Voyager past the edge
of the galaxy and beyond. The space race
brought breakthroughs in technologies such
as robotics, satellite TV, MRI and CAT scans
and more. Additionally, the last space race
encouraged exploration in math and science
among students who would grow to be today’s
leaders in those ﬁelds. A new space race could
bring us many similar great things.
For t hese reasons, I suppor t Musk ’s
statement that we need a new space race.
A competitive race built on industry and
love for innovation would be the ideal new
race — one which could happen sooner than
you think. The previous space race was on
taxpayers’ dime, something that many people
slowly grew to hate. However, this space
race would be built off of private companies
funding themselves to achieve the incredible.
Musk’s SpaceX has many competitors, like
Blue Origin, which will help this sense of
competition thrive.
The goal of this race would be to expand
access to space and to open the horizon up
like a door for any man to walk through.
This would be a fantast ic next step for
humanity’s climb into the future. Making the
ﬁ nal frontier into a homestead would be an
achievement beyond imagination.
Additionally, the notion of a new space
race just appeals to me. Great minds working
toget her to create somet h i ng br ill ia nt
provides a bit of romance and awe that I yearn
to see. But the main reason I crave seeing
this development is because of what we could
achieve technologically from this competitive
environment. Technology is already growing
exponentially: the ﬁrst home computer came
out in 1975, about 40 years after the very ﬁrst
basic programmable computer was made. Just
20 years later the first smartphone comes
out. Of course, the very ﬁ rst smartphone is
nothing compared to the latest iPhone X.
Technology evolves quickly, and a new
space race will add fuel to that fire. Great
things could be created by SpaceX, Blue
Origin or any other company invested in
space. And besides, watching rockets go up
into space and drop off cars is just amazing
to see.

Rand Paul was right;
GOP hypocritical on debt
In the age of Trump,
the Republican party
and those associated
with it are completely
unrecognizable. John
McCain has become
a l ibera l hero, t he
bu mbling George
Joseph
W. B u s h i s b e i n g
Will
presented as a source
Third-year
of sage wisdom and,
economics
student
most signiﬁcantly, the
objectivist Paul Ryan
is pushing bills that will end up
drastically increasing the size of the
national debt.
No one prior to the inauguration
of Trump would have predicted
any of this. It’s as if the party has
completely redefined itself around
Donald Trump, jettisoning oncesacred principles such as limited
government and fiscal austerity.
T he se cha nge s i n t he pa r t y ’s
philosophy reveal a deep-seated
hypocrisy that lies at the heart of
American politics, where supposed
principles are second to partisan
politics and political power. Rand
Paul’s brief overnight government
shutdown early Friday morning does
more than enough to expose the
enormous rift between the GOP and
their previous principles.
Whereas Paul would have been
lauded as a hero by the Obama-era
Republicans, from Thursday night
into Friday morning he was nothing

more than a nuisance. His speech,
railing against runaway government
spending and ballooning national
debts, was familiar fare. Rand Paul
ranting about government spending
is not exactly breaking news. The
key difference this time is the target
of his speech.
A s Pau l poi nted out , t he
Republican party of the Obama
e r a b u i lt it s e nt i r e i d e nt it y
around opposing large increases
in government spending. Under
Trump, the GOP is passing bills
that increase government sending
to levels comparable to the amount
spent by Obama during the depths
of the Great Recession. This is a
complete 180 on principle for the
Republican party, which has become
hardly recognizable over the past
year. Gone is pseudo-libertarianism
a nd def ic it h aw k i s h ne s s , t he
elements that deﬁned the GOP for
some during the era of the Tea Party.
The Republican party has revealed
its true face as a party interested
primarily in crude power.
The actions of the GOP in the
era of Trump have shown us that
it was not for principled reasons
that the party went to such great
lengths to oppose Obama’s increases
in government spending. It seems
that is not government spending
that enrages the GOP, but rather
Democratic spending. This is just
as true of the party’s base as it is

of the leaders. As Obama has left
ofﬁce, the deﬁcit has quickly faded
in importance for Republican voters,
according to polls.
This is the reality of politics, that
what matters is not some abstract
guiding principle, but rather the
accruing of power. Most liberals are
no better themselves, often turning
a blind eye to horrendous actions
that are carried out by leaders they
like. Had the Trump administration
instigated the Pakistan drone strike
program or agreed to bankroll the
Saudi war in Yemen, liberals would
be frothing at the mouth, yet all
too many were conspicuously silent
when Obama was doing these things
during his presidency.
The actual technical issue being
addressed by Paul Thursday night is
of little concern. There’s no reason
to think that the proposed bill will
destroy the economy or signiﬁcantly
affect the average American. His
speech still deser ves praise for
re ve a l i ng bl at a nt Republ ic a n
double standards. The so-called
“Libertarian moment” of 2014,
spearheaded by Paul, is dead.
For at least as long as Trump is
president, the GOP will not hesitate
to do the ver y things that they
condemned Obama for doing. Unless
a politician has proven otherwise, as
Paul did Thursday, it is best to take
any supposed “principles” or ideals
with a grain of salt.

Conservatives also guilty of political correctness
If you’ve followed the
news at all the past 18
months, you’ve probably
s e e n c over ag e of t he
chaos at Universit y of
California Berkeley. Once
a bastion of free speech,
UC Berkeley has become
Jared
a house divided over the
Bailey
issue of censorship. The
Second-year
English and
school has been at the
political science
center of cont rovers y
student
nu merous t i mes for
c h a l le n g i n g — of t e n
times in the form of violent protests
— notable political commentators like
Ben Shapiro and far-right provocateur
Milo Yiannopoulos. This has caused
the school to become a lightning rod for
right-wing criticism.
To many conservative commentators,
Berkeley has become synonymous with
the left’s growing “political correctness,”
an indicator that Democrats want to
suppress speech that they deem offensive.
The problem with this analysis, however,
is not just that it lazily extrapolates
from one example to make a sweeping
claim about an entire party, but that
it implies that this is a partisan issue
at all. While conservatives may enjoy
lambasting easy targets like Berkeley,
they are prone to completely ignore the
political correctness growing in their
own backyard.
Political correctness is a buzzword

right now that evokes strong feelings
in those who hear it. For some, it
probably brings to mind the polarizing
debates over safe spaces and trigger
warnings. For others, it might conjure
a more potent image of fascism: citizens
marching in lockstep, 2+2=5, etc. In
reality, political correctness is a lot more
subtle and is generally reflected in a
series of small acts instead of a large and
obvious one. Though we may be tired of
talking about him, President Trump is
actually a good example of this pattern
of subtle political correctness evident in
the Republican party.
It is no secret that President Trump
has a less than favorable view of political
correctness; he’s gone as far as to call
it the “big problem” with America. It
then should also come as no surprise
that Trump hopped on the bandwagon
with conservative critics to skewer UC
Berkley, tweeting “If U.C. Berkeley
does not allow free speech and practices
violence on innocent people with a
different point of view - NO FEDERAL
FUNDS?”
But Trump is no staunch defender of
free speech. He recently commented on
the growing number of NFL players
kneeling during the national anthem,
referring to any player who chose to
kneel as a “son of a bitch” who should
be ﬁred; he went on to say that players
should not be “allowed” to disrespect
the American flag. This a sentiment

that President Trump even spitballed
a policy solution for. On Nov. 29,
2016, President-elect Trump tweeted
“Nobody should be allowed to burn
the American flag - if they do, there
must be consequences - perhaps loss of
citizenship or year in jail!”
This is t he sort of inst it ut ional
political correctness that President
Trump and other conservatives have
railed so hard against, but it seems that
their judgment on this issue is limited to
opposing parties. The man who called
out those who criticized his free, noﬁlter expression during his campaign is
the same man who calls NFL players
sons of bitches for kneeling and calls
Democrats treasonous for choosing not
to applaud at his State of The Union;
it’s glaring hypocrisy that needs to be

called out.
People should criticize schools when
they do ridiculous things, but it is
important to take a moment and remove
the blinders. Free speech is not inherent
in one party or another. It is something
that has to be fought for continually,
even when it means calling out someone
you agree with. And it’s important to
uproot the attitude of censorship not
just in our opponents or even in our own
party, but within ourselves also. So if
you ﬁnd yourself believing that political
correctness is something quarantined
to the left but simultaneously believing
that it is your duty to demand that
Colin Kaepernick stand for the national
anthem, you might need to do some
personal reflection on what you really
believe about free speech.

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The South Carolina men’s basketball
team was looking to bounce back from a
four game skid Saturday against Florida,
but Mike White and the Gators had other
plans.
The Gamecocks beat the Gators in
Gainesville earlier this year, so it’s safe to
say the Gators wanted revenge. This was
clear comparing the energy from both
teams on Saturday. From the tip-off, it
was obvious Florida wanted this game; the
Gators came out and played with more
passion than the Gamecocks.
Frank Booker, who led the team off the
bench with 17 points, noticed the lack of
energy from the Gamecocks and blamed it
on their current losing streak.
“Right now we are playing kind of
stagnant. We’re not playing like the team
that we know we are,” he said. “I don’t want
to say that we’re not passionate because
everyday we’re at practice, we’re running,
we’re sprinting, we’re doing things, we’re
with each other. I just don’t see the same
look in everybody’s eyes ... because of the
losing.”
The ﬁrst half was not a pretty one for the
Gamecocks. Florida held South Carolina
to only 20 points, the team’s lowest total in
a half this year. Booker accounted for 11 of
those 20 ﬁrst half points.
The Gamecocks also had all sorts of
trouble with the physicality of Florida.
South Carolina was never able to establish
a presence in the paint. Florida dominated

the inside on both ends, blocking six of
South Carolina’s ﬁrst half shots while also
out rebounding the Gamecocks by 12.
As if this wasn’t enough, head coach
Frank Martin earned himself a technical.
It sparked a little momentum for the
Gamecocks and the crowd, but not enough
to get South Carolina back into the game.
The second half was much of the same
for Martin and company. Martin was ﬁred
up at half time as he came out of the tunnel
for the second half with no blazer on and
his tie loosened.
The Gamecocks, once again, could
not find any offensive rhythm. Florida
continuously disrupted the offensive
flow that South Carolina was trying to
establish. Each time down on the offensive
end, the Gamecocks would try to run their
offensive set and would get displaced and
have to try and create something new.
Once the Gators stretched the lead to 20
points, they never looked back. Nothing
the Gamecocks did could stop the players
on either end of the f loor, making it
complete domination by Florida.
“This wasn’t an X and O problem here
today. We got beat to everything. We got
beat to loose balls, we got out disciplined,”
Martin said. “We had no ﬁght, we tried,
we showed up to play, but then Florida said
we’re not losing to you guys again ... We
looked for the back door and snuck out of
the ﬁght.”
The Gamecocks will look to regroup
and end this ﬁve-game streak this week on
the road against No. 15 Tennessee.
Sara Yang/ THE DAILY GAMECOCK

Ice ‘Cocks go cold
late versus Ole Miss
Mike Woodel
@GETHISDOGONETOO

Shreyas Saboo / THE DAILY GAMECOCK

Graduate transfer Lindsey Spann ends her career early due to a recurring ankle injury.

Spann’s season cut
short due to knee injury
Danny Waller
@DMWALLER23

Senior g uard Lindsey
Spa n n’s c a reer at USC
w ill end a mont h early.
Just before the women’s
basketball game Sunday,
t he team announced
Spann would be out for
the reminder of the 20172018 season due to k nee
injuries. A grad transfer
from Penn State, Spann
provided veteran knowledge
and leadership, and t he
Gamecocks will surely miss
her three-point shooting.
It didn’t take long for
Spann’s absence to become
ap p a r e nt . I n S u nd a y ’s
g a m e a g a i n s t F lo r id a ,
t he Gamecock s’ lack of
sharpshooters put the team
in trouble. Without Spann
on the ﬂoor, South Carolina
was searching for an answer
ot her t han A’ja Wilson.
Luckily for the Gamecocks,

Ty Harris caught fire and
stepped up and went 4-6
from the f loor, including
hitting three timely threes
in the fourth quarter.
Harris proved that the
Gamecocks would be able
to rely on her in the future
to provide a shooting threat
from the outside, but at the
end of the game, Spann’s
absence still affected the
team.
Spann has been battling
i nju r ie s a l l sea son a nd
just ret u r ned to act ion
earlier this week, only for
her season to be cut short
due to her recurring knee
p r oble m s . He a d c o a c h
Dawn Staley acknowledged
the loss of one of her key
players, expressing t hat
Spann’s absence from the
court is not an ideal way for
her to end the season and
collegiate career.
“ S h e’s a g r e a t k i d ,”

SPORTSPAGE1
getting the win against Alabama, this
win against Florida was needed for the
Gamecocks.
“Right now, I think it’s a great thing,”
Staley said on her team reaching 20 wins.
“I didn’t even realize that ... I’m looking for
how we’re playing. If we’re playing well, the
wins are going to accumulate ... I think we’re
a 20-win program, especially with having
someone like A’ja on the team.”
A’ja Wilson once again did what she
needed to do and led the team with 22
points, including making a jumper at the
buzzer to tie the game at 30 going into the
half. As the Gamecocks have seen, Wilson

Staley said. “She’s a great
locker room kid ... I think
the basketball gods got it
wrong.”
While Spann’s injury will
hurt the Gamecocks on the
court, they will still have her
presence in the locker room,
so the team will be able to
draw on her leadership and
motivation. It remains to be
seen, however, which players
will step up in her place.
Don i y a h C l i ne y a nd
Harris are both capable of
providing the offense Staley
is looking for, but having
two guards won’t be enough
from a depth standpoint for
the rest of the season. Staley
will have to rely on freshman
Bianca Jackson to come in
and play a much larger role
for the Gamecocks in the
latter part of the season. It
will be up to these three to
make the absence of Spann
a bit easier moving forward.

can’t win these games on her own. Since the
team is now shorthanded, others must step
up. Doniyah Cliney and Tyasha Harris did
that on Sunday, as Cliney ﬁnished with 12
points and Harris ﬁnished with 18.
“We’re a team in which we have to lean on
A’ja, but then when she gets exhausted, the
next person that has experience is Doniyah
and she’s really not used to being in that
position,” Staley said. “Everybody just has
to do their job, and when everybody can do
their job, we will be a really good basketball
team.”
The Gamecocks will head to Athens,
GA on Thursday to face the No. 18 ranked
Georgia Bulldogs. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. on
the SEC Network.

The hockey gods st if fed
South Carolina one last time in
Sat u rday ’s consolat ion g a me
at the Southeastern Collegiate
Hockey Conference tournament in
Antioch, Tennessee.
With South Carolina’s roster
reduced to 15 skaters in the game’s
latter half, the Gamecocks battled
back to put themselves in a fine
position to take the game and a ﬁfth
place ﬁnish. In the end, however, a
constant stream of penalties —
some more quest ionable t han
others — and the stellar play of Ole
Miss goaltender Joseph Warnecke
befell the Gamecocks.
South Carolina took seven minor
penalties in the ﬁrst period alone,
and the Rebels wasted no time
making them pay. Just under eight
minutes in, with Ole Miss leading
1-0 and Jake Tengi serving his
third minor of the period, Braden
Storner tipped home Gray Erwin’s
blast from just inside the blue line
to give his team a quick two-goal
lead.
Brian Soh r cut t he Rebels’
lead in half 1:27 before the first
intermission with his second goal
of the tournament, sending Cory
Hawkinson’s rebound underneath
Warnecke to make it 2-1.
No scoring followed in
t he second, but injuries once
again plagued the already short
Gamecock bench. In addition to
the absence of leading goalscorer
Sean Davis, Tengi left the game
with a possible concussion, a result
of him crashing into the glass after
an Ole Miss player dodged his
attempted body check.
Ian Schneider followed Tengi
to the locker room eight minutes
later after sustaining a leg injury
in a scrum in front of the South

Carolina net. According to head
coach Allan Sirois, both players are
unlikely to play in the Gamecocks’
final regular season game this
Friday.
Left with only 15 skaters, South
Carolina faced the final period
down one. Desperate to catch up to
the Rebels, Sirois pulled goaltender
Jared Ward on a 5-on-3 power
play seven minutes into the third.
The gamble soon paid off as Ian
Powderly one-timed a pass past
Warnecke from the right circle to
get the Gamecocks back within one
with 12:01 to play.
Just over t wo minutes later,
Alex Siegfried batted home a pass
from behind the goal line for his
sixth goal of the season to knot the
game at 3-3. As with Friday’s game
against Kentucky, though, penalties
ultimately did the Gamecocks in.
Still tied with two minutes and
change remaining, officials sent
Nick Nardslico off the ice for cross
checking. The Gamecocks killed
the Rebels’ man advantage, but
with 28.5 seconds remaining, Sohr
took his ﬁfth penalty of the night
for hooking to put Ole Miss on the
power play for the remainder of
regulation. As Sohr skated to the
box, Ole Miss called timeout to
prepare for one last offensive push.
Just off the faceoff, with 7.5
seconds until overtime, Storner
beat Ward through traffic with
a long wrist shot from the rightside boards to put the Rebels ahead
for good, 4-3. With 2.9 seconds
left, Sirois pulled Ward a second
time after Erwin took yet another
minor penalty for Ole Miss, but
the Gamecocks couldn’t get a shot
off before the ﬁnal horn. Warnecke
ﬁnished with 43 saves to Ward’s 34.
South Carolina closes the regular
season with the senior night game
against Clemson on Friday night
in Irmo.